INFORMATION AND TIPS ABOUT SOUTHWEST FLORIDA REAL ESTATE

Pricing a box of cereal for $2.99 is great,, but NEVER price your home at $299,000!

The retail industry has conditioned us over the years that when we price products we should create a price that ends in a “9” because (we are told) it sounds lower. In certain instances, ending the price of an item in a “9” can sound a bit less expensive, right? Whether this is true or not can be debated, but it is not the point here. Today we are talking specifically about how to price a real estate listing to get maximum listing exposure!

The internet has changed the way people show for real estate.

With the advent and increased use of the internet, many things have changed in the way people search for property and the way it should be marketed. Today, more than 95% of all potential buyers of real estate start their search on the internet. The way the vast majority of real estate internet sites are set up force prospective buyers to search for properties using “search brackets” for the parameter of sales price. To learn more about bracket pricing go here.

When potential buyers search for real estate on the internet (as we know the vast majority of people do), they search for the perfect home within given price ranges; this is done typically with per-determined “drop-down” pricing “brackets” that the internet site provides. For example: if you are looking for a property in the “$200,000 to $250,000 price rage, you would plug these parameters in to the computer and viola only homes within this price rage appear in the search results.

Price a real estate listing for maximum exposure!

So, in the above scenario, what happens when a real estate listing is priced at $199,000?? The answer is simple, it does not get shown! In addition, the potential buyer does not even know it exists. The great news is that the home (priced at 199k) does show up for people for looking in the $150,000 to $200,000 price range, but another group of people (searching for a home between $200,000 and $250,000, and probably equal in size) did not even know your property existed! At these numbers, doesn’t $199,000 sound less expensive than $200,000? I don’t think so, but the missed opportunity of marketing exposure is huge. Pricing the real estate listing at an even $200,000 will allow it to show up in more people’s searches.

What if I price a little higher so I have room to negotiate?

On another note, pricing a property slightly above any search bracket is equally as bad. A home priced at $203,000 will also be equally invisible to those searching in the $150,000 to $200,000 price range. People searching in this range did not know your home existed! I understand the reason many people price a little high (to have room to negotiate), but being visible to more people will always result in better initial offers and a quicker sale.

Think in $25,000 increments. If the price is slightly above or below these intervals, you should rethink your pricing strategy to maximize possible marketing exposure.